Posts Tagged ‘van’

During the Manchester International Festival, I discovered Ginger’s Comfort Emporium – an ice cream van that releases your inner child. The pink and maroon van was parked in Festival Square and I once made an out-of-my-way beeline for it in order to soothe my life-is-hard woes. It worked – this ice cream is good. The flavours are not your average chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. They vary daily from salted caramel with peanut butter (aka Chorlton Crack), dark chocolate, strawberry with mint, and rhubarb and pink peppercorn sorbet.

Since the festival, I have spotted the van at various points over town and am usually unable to stop myself from buying ice cream. Life is too short, I say. Buy the ice cream, I say. So within minutes I am holding a cone filled with glorious melting goodness. On my first two visits I just chose my staple option, pure origins dark chocolate, unable to bend from my usual ways. But the other Sunday I was feeling emotional, hormonal and depressed (a dangerous combination that can only be fixed with sugar and fat) and Pooja and I went in search of THE VAN. I decided to take them up on their great double scoop deal (£2.50 for one, £3.50 for two) and chose dark chocolate and Chorlton Crack. Oh the joy! My grumpy face was instantly replaced by jubilant smiles and then “I ate too much ice cream and I think I might vomit…” contentedness.

Mmmm… Pure Origins and Chorlton Crack…

I have now had this double-banger ice cream twice and I am shocked to discover that the folk in charge of Ginger’s Comfort Emporium do not agree with my flavour combination. On their website they have an article stating they advise their customers against joining chocolate and crack as they both have deep flavours that should be savoured on their own. I can understand this and as someone who appreciates the joy of simple and pure food, I accept their call. However, the pure joy that I received from having these two flavours together can’t be denied. Perhaps it is because I am a particularly skilled ice cream eater and I never actually eat the two flavours together. All I know is that the ice cream is good, the van is awesome and I love Ginger’s Comfort Emporium. The end.